The mainstream media is finally admitting that the shift to green energy is threatening Americans’ power supplies, with the Washington Post warning that our power grid is being pushed “to the brink.”
Could rolling blackouts soon became the norm in parts of the U.S., much like they are in places like North Korea and Pakistan?
Demand is skyrocketing in places like Northern Virginia, where the equivalent to several big nuclear plants is needed to handle all of the upcoming data centers there, and Georgia, whose projected new electricity use for the next decade is 17 times greater than recent figures. In Texas, where there are already routine electricity shortages on the hottest days of summer, growing demand could push it to a breaking point, while Arizona’s biggest utility expects to be out of transmission capacity before the decade closes.
The paper notes: “Vast swaths of the United States are at risk of running short of power as electricity-hungry data centers and clean-technology factories proliferate around the country, leaving utilities and regulators grasping for credible plans to expand the nation’s creaking power grid.”
They cite the rapid scaling of cloud computing and AI as part of the problem given its great demand for power. Crypto mining is also placing pressure on the grid, causing bottlenecks and other issues.
However, they also point out that manufacturers of clean technologies such as electric vehicle batteries and solar panels are building a lot of factories in the U.S. with support from federal incentives, and utility projections for the power that new factories will need in the next five years have nearly doubled and could grow even further.
They add that the energy transition is pushing many Americans to depend on the power grid for fueling their cars, induction stoves, heat pumps and other appliances that used to run on fossil fuels.
The chairman of electricity regulator Georgia Public Service Commission, Jason Shaw, said: “When you look at the numbers, it is staggering. It makes you scratch your head and wonder how we ended up in this situation. How were the projections that far off? This has created a challenge like we have never seen before.”
Although the Post does express concerns about how this might “stifle the transition to cleaner energy,” at least they are admitting there is a problem here.
Summer reliability assessment predicts power outages could hit two thirds of Americans this summer
Assessments by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) predict that two thirds of the U.S. could experience power outages this summer, including nearly everyone living to the west of the Mississippi River. They note that the government is forcing conventional energy resources like nuclear power, natural gas and coal into retirement too quickly, and it is not being replaced quickly enough by wind and solar power to meet power demands.
The Institute for Energy Research notes that the EPA’s Good Neighbor Plan, which requires the fossil fuel plants in nearly half of the country to decrease nitrogen oxide emissions, will also lead to blackouts as power plants are expected to comply by limiting their hours of operation.
Meanwhile, solar plant inverters are suffering from widespread glitches and systemic performance issues that can trigger major power outages and threaten grid reliability.
They said: “The NERC summer reliability assessment is a warning to the Biden Administration and states moving full speed ahead on the green energy transition.”
Unfortunately, they believe that it won’t be until the power goes out and people experience blackouts that politicians will realize just how disastrous their push for green energy really is.
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